Simple 2D Terrain

Been spending some more time working on 2D map generation using the tool from the previous post. I ended up with the following terrain map.

Not a bad start however it needs more variation.

The process is simple, but I’m not sure how well it will scale to 3D infinite terrain.

The first step was to create a “land mask”. This is done using a fractal noise function and setting any value above sea level (zero) to land and anything below to water. Which gives the following land mass.

Next step is to use another noise function (could just be a different seed) to determine elevation.

Followed by moisuture/rainfall using a different noise function.

Temperature is determined by 2 factors.

1. Elevation (The greater the altitude, the colder the temperature)
2. Latitude (north, south)

elevation_temperature = 1.0 - elevation
latitude_temperature = 1.0 - distance_from_center

temperate = elevation_temperature + latitude_temperate # [0, 2]

Next is figuring out what the current biome is. Biomes are determined by using the above moisture and temperature maps.

I found a really cool reference for biomes with respect to temperature and moisture.

I added 3 temperature threshold parameters to represent the 4 termperature regions. And 3 moisture threshold parameters to represent the change in rainfall.

Then simply use a series of if/else to find the right biome. Resulting in:

Something to keep in mind is that biomes are informational. They do not dictate what specific block is at that location. They instead indicate a number of blocks that could be used or information on what that biome may contain (like trees).

For this map, Boreal and Temperate forests will have trees.

And in the final layer I wanted to show elevation using moutain ranges. So we end up with the first image.

Problems

One problem is determining temperature in infinite terrain. It would mean that temperature would only be tied to elevation since there is no far north and south regions. Meaning you can’t have low cold areas.

Edit

Well randomly place temperature might not be too bad after a little experiementation. I also added snow caps, ice over water and sandy shores.